Far beyond their Tex-Mex origins, Tumaro’s flavored gourmet tortillas are now the stars of sandwiches, snacks, and dazzling desserts. Make your tortillas even more dazzling by serving them in decorative candle holders like these.

Overview

There is a running joke at NIBBLE headquarters about the burrito shop down the street. It’s a very good burrito shop where we occasionally grab a quick lunch. There’s always a choice of wraps: regular, whole wheat, spinach, or sun-dried tomato. Over time, however, you realize that these choices are purely visual: They all taste like the basic plain tortilla, just more gaily colored.

That’s why we were so enthused when we happened upon Tumaro’s Gourmet Tortillas. These flour tortillas come in many flavors that taste as the wrapper promises. Perhaps that’s not surprising, since the company invented the category of flavored tortillas ten years ago.

Included in the 20-flavor assortment are four dessert flavors, low carb flavors, and resealable bags to maximize freshness once you’ve opened the package. They’re low-fat, trans fat-free, composed of 89% to 93% organic ingredients and certified kosher. There’s even an extra-healthy, low-carb version. What more could one ask? (O.K., how about a Frida Kahlo print in every package?)

While we don’t usually make Tex-Mex food at home—quesadillas, tacos, burritos, and enchiladas—tortillas have become mainstream as sandwich wraps for everyday tuna, turkey and avocado BLT’s as well sliced into party finger food with smoked salmon and cream cheese, crab salad, goat cheese and figs. They’re convenient to grab on the go, and are gourmet fun at every level. (The offer of salad on two pieces of bread doesn’t quite generate the same excitement as a Caesar wrap.)

Tumaro’s Gourmet Tortillas come in the three basic sizes of flour tortillas: 6 inches for tacos, 8-inches general purpose and 10-inches for burritos and wraps. (Although Tumaro’s doesn’t make them, you’ll also see corn tortillas in the 6-inch taco size. Generally they don’t come in flavors, although a few producers are beginning to make them in basic varieties like sun-dried tomato and blue corn.)

It’s easy to wrap:

Wrap Artists: The Flavors of Tumaro’s

While kudos go to that first chef or caterer who transformed the thousand-year-old tortilla into the sandwich wrap, it took other culinary artists like Tumaro to improved upon the idea. Now, any sandwich filling you can imagine can match to flavored wraps. We’ve grouped them for illustration (not all flavors available in all sizes):

You can also pair them to scrambled eggs, “tortilla nachos” (melt cheese with sausage and/or jalapeño slices), anything you can imagine. In fact, hold weekly contests to see who can come up with the most inventive use of a wrap. In addition to the “experiments,” you’ll come up with some winners you’ll keep for your family, the kids’ friends, and general entertaining. (One of our own personal winners is using Green Onion to make a smoked salmon and salmon caviar burrito with sour cream or crème fraîche. We snip a few chives inside for emphasis. Premium White also works.)

Speaking of entertaining, here’s a factoid to impress your friends: The tortilla category as a whole comprises more than 30% of sales within the multi-billion-dollar U.S. bread industry. It trails white bread sales by only 2%.* Given the number of sandwich shops compared to Mexican restaurants, someone must be eating a lot of wrap sandwiches!

*Study by Aspex Research for the Tortillas Industry Association.

Dessert Wraps

For dessert excitement, take a chocolate, apple-cinnamon, blueberry, or pineapple-banana wrap and fill it with:

Ricotta (add a dab of vanilla and sugar), chocolate chips and chopped candied fruit for a “cannoli wrap”

Chopped mango, papaya, pineapple, dates and coconut with a dab of custard, Coco Lopez or ricotta for a tropical wrap

You can also make sundae bowls out of the tortillas by pressing them into a bowl, microwaving for 30 seconds, tamping down the tortilla and microwaving for another 30 seconds. The shaped tortilla “bowl” will air-dry and harden so you can add ice cream and your favorite toppings.

Tumaro’s serves up three irresistible dessert wrap recipes: Triple Treat Ice Cream Delight, Apple-Cinnamon Pie Wrap, and Chocolate Cheesecake Wrap. You can make them even with plain tortillas.

Tortilla Care

In general, opened tortillas will keep in the refrigerator for two weeks or more, unopened in the refrigerator for two months, and in the freezer for nine months. After the tortilla package is opened, keeping them in an airtight container is essential so they don’t dry out. Here Tumaro also scores by packing their tortillas in zip-lock bags. They have kept our tortillas in perfect shape for a month and counting.